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The teachers union in Westerville might consider striking if labor negotiations don’t improve
with the school board, according to emails sent by union leaders and obtained by
The Dispatch.

Leaders of the
Westerville Education Association, the
union that represents about 1,000 teachers in the district, have not returned emails or calls over
the past week.

But in a half-dozen emails in recent weeks, the union’s leaders discouraged teachers from
preparing classrooms early for the upcoming school year or volunteering at certain school
events.

“We know that times are tough and we may even be looking at a strike situation,” according to an
email sent to teachers on Friday and signed by Rhonda Gilpin, the union’s president-elect, and Tom
Cook, the vice president-elect.

“We will not always agree on how to proceed, but it is vital that we continue to listen to each
other,” it read.

About 30 union members attended the school-board meeting last night in shirts bearing school
names and colors. A union flier from early June asked teachers to attend the meeting. “Our presence
will hopefully encourage the board to go back to the bargaining table and negotiate with our
bargaining team,” read one email signed by the union’s “crisis team.”

Teachers at the meeting declined to be interviewed. Union members made no public comment, and
board members did not mention the teachers’ presence.

But district spokesman Greg Viebranz has said the board’s bargaining team is still in labor
negotiations, which are confidential.

Emails obtained by
The Dispatch don’t detail union grievances but imply that the union is dissatisfied with
the district’s bargaining team. The union’s goal is to encourage the board “to come back to the
table” and “create a fair contract,” according to a union email sent to teachers on Sunday. It also
reminds teachers that “no one wants to strike.”

Union leaders also have urged teachers to help fight a repeal effort that would take away part
of a 2009 district levy. In the email signed by Gilpin, union leaders warn of heavy cuts if the
repeal succeeds. It also takes aim at a group that helped craft the repeal.

It said that the
1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a
right-leaning nonprofit group based in Columbus, is an outsider playing politics in the district,
aiming to “bust” unions and privatize education throughout Ohio.

The center’s director said he doesn’t oppose unions, but that the group does support school
choice and works to help Ohioans battle “unfair” taxes. “We do support taxes that are as low as
they can be while providing essential services,” director Maurice Thompson said yesterday.

The district began labor talks with its teachers union shortly after a successful March levy. In
the run-up to that election, the union president said teachers had agreed to some concessions but
wouldn’t elaborate.

The union’s contract now expires at the end of August. Classes resume on Aug. 15.